Tobacco inflicts huge damage on the health of India’s people and could be clocking up a death toll of 1.5 million a year by 2020 if more users are not persuaded to kick the habit, an international report said.

Despite having signed up to a global treaty on tobacco control and having numerous anti-tobacco and smoke-free laws, India is failing to implement them effectively, leaving its people vulnerable to addiction and ill health, according to the report by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITCP).

“Compared with many countries around the world, India has been proactive in introducing tobacco control legislation since 2003,” said Geoffrey Fong, a professor of psychology at Canada’s University of Waterloo and a co-author of the report. Read More